Best Character Meal in Disneyland

[materbuddy]

We are avid WDW goers and are trying to plan our first trip to Disneyland. I know that there are only 5 character meals. I need to know which ones are your top 3 and the reasons why. I am drawn to Chip and Dale's Critter Breakfast, Goofy's Kitchen for dinner and Ariel's Grotto for lunch. How are my choices?

 

[Schneewittchen]

Don't know about your choices, never tried those combinations.

My family did the Plaza Inn and Ariel's Grotto breakfasts last fall. Both were great. The Plaza Inn had a ton of characters and really didn't take too long - and a standard tasty buffet breakfast. Ariel's Grotto was slower paced, but plenty of time with each princess and had a great menu.

 

[drizgirl]

You're missing what many will say is the best character meal Disney offers right now, Minnie's breakfast at Plaza Inn. It's a beautiful setting and has a rotating schedule that will allow you to meet 8-10 characters sometimes.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

We are avid WDW goers and are trying to plan our first trip to Disneyland. I know that there are only 5 character meals. I need to know which ones are your top 3 and the reasons why. I am drawn to Chip and Dale's Critter Breakfast, Goofy's Kitchen for dinner and Ariel's Grotto for lunch. How are my choices?

Plaza Inn is the best, followed by Surf's Up at PCH. Critter is fine but character lineup leaves something to be desired. Grotto is princesses only, if you're into that, and Goofy's Kitchen just kind of sucks.

 

[vancee]

When I went to Plaza Inn in July they easily had way over 10 characters, I never seen that many before. There we're tons! It depends on the day I guess, also we didn't get to see all the characters because there were so many.

 

[Curious Constance]

We go to Goofy's Kitchen every trip, but that's admittedly because we like the buffet and tradition the place has become for our family. The characters are exactly the same every time the last five years or so.
Chip
Dale
Minnie
Goofy
Pluto

It's one of the only options for dinner with characters though, so if you want dinner, it's not a bad choice good wise.

 

[BAChicagoGal]

I like Ariel's Grotto for the food, and the fact that the princesses don't arrive until you are almost finished with your meal. When I was there last, they did not rush us at all, and we had a lot of time with the princesses. Plaza Inn does have a lot of great characters, but it is just average buffet food. So I guess you need to decide what your priority is. If you want quality of food, over the number of characters than Ariel's is a good choice. I haven't been to Goofy's Kitchen or Storytellers lately, but I enjoyed them in the past. PCH Grill was a big disappointment to me when I was there about two years ago. The food was fair, but the characters kept ignoring me. I guess they thought a solo guest did not want their attention. So wrong. I left there feeling quite angry that I had to ask for attention from the characters.

 

[drizgirl]

I like Ariel's Grotto for the food, and the fact that the princesses don't arrive until you are almost finished with your meal.

That might have been the case on your visit, but not always the case.

 

[BAChicagoGal]

Some character meals send characters over to your table almost immediately after your arrival. I know they are in a "time crunch", but many times in all my years of character meals, characters have been sent to our table while we were visiting the buffet. We soon learned to wait to visit the buffet after that first character encounter. Every restaurant has a different system. Which is why I really enjoy the fixed meals better than the buffet ones where characters are involved. Also servers are all different as well. The good ones will explain that someone will be visiting you shortly, and then you are free to enjoy the buffet, rather than doing it immediately after arrival.